25th June 2012, London – Hurtwood House, the UK’s top school for creative minds, in conjunction with MOFILM, leading crowdsourcing agency, today announced the launch of the inaugural Hurtwood Prize for Young Filmmakers, a competition that will see the winner create an official music video for one of four top Polydor acts.

The Maccabees, Lawson, Spector & Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs have each provided a track, plus assets, for young filmmakers aged 16 – 21 to download, create a video with and then submit to the
Hurtwood Prize YouTube Channel by the deadline of 6th August. 40 entries will be shortlisted and featured for public voting from 16th August for one week.

The bands, a dedicated jury and the public will decide the ten finalists by 23rd August, who will be invited to take part in a two day film production workshop at Hurtwood House. Over the course of the workshop, the finalists will learn everything they need to know in order to shoot their own video. From these 10 an ultimate winner will be selected, giving one filmmaker the chance to shoot an official video for one of the four bands.

To support the competition, David Knight and Phil Tidy, curators of BUG Video, have created a series of video tutorials for any young filmmaker looking to create their own music promo. The films contain interviews with all of the professionals whose work goes into the production of a music video – from stylists to directors, from commissioners to choreographers.

Richard Jackson, headmaster of Hurtwood said “I really am excited about the prospect of giving every young person in the country the opportunity to join this competition.” He continued, “How exciting it is to run your own school and feel people are really getting so much out it, but how much more rewarding to be able to spread this nationwide…to give everybody the facility to make a pop promo and to impress the industry, to impress the industry so much that perhaps… they go on to get the work experience to launch them into a career.”

David Alberts, chief creative officer, MOFILM, said “I am overwhelmed by the generosity and enthusiasm the industry has shown in putting the Hurtwood Prize together.

To the people at Polydor, their artists, management and publishers who made this possible, the directors, producers, editors and industry professionals who have given their time and advice, to the people at YouTube who have built the platform and everybody at The Mirror Channel 4 and Orange who are helping to spread the word on behalf of the Young Film Makers we say thank you.”

Alberts continued, “And finally and most importantly to Richard Jackson and the team at Hurtwood House whose vision and belief in the importance of the creative industries is an inspiration to us all. Everybody who has been successful in the music video industry was given the chance to shine at one stage in their career, The Hurtwood Prize could well be that opportunity.

Just maybe a kid from an estate in Leeds will shoot a video on his mobile phone and become the next Spike Jones.”